Do What You Need to Do
by Krrimarte
Summary: The takedown of Itex, in Max's eyes. Part 2 Of A Series


_**Do What You Need To Do...**_

_By Krrimarte_

"_**The only lessons learned in war are how to bleed, and how to cry."**_

"_Max, look out!" I turned in the opposite direction of Fang, angling my body to the right. I barely managed to avoid the razor sharp claws of the latest in ITEX creature creations, The Wolverine. There's only one of him, but he's worse then Ari, he just keeps popping up everywhere. _

_Ow. Yeah, thinking about Ari is still a sore spot for me. He was my brother and as much as I hated him, I still feel bad. Nobody deserves what he went through. _

_I spun around and grabbed his arm, pulling the menacing creature off of his feet. _

"_Stay there, if you want to continue breathing." I snarled at him. I could see in his eyes, that he was more human then the erasers, let's just hope that he was more intelligent too. There was no way to tell how old this guy was. He could be a hundred and fifty, or a year old. That's the sick reality of this company, they're equal opportunity destroyers. _

_I chanced a look over my shoulder to see an armed guard creeping up behind Fang. "DUCK!" I yelled. Fang instantly hit the floor and stared at me. I drew my gun and took aim. Letting out a deep breath I squeezed the trigger. The bullet hit it's mark and the guard fell down to his knees clutching his right arm. _

_I may have changed my mind about guns now that the kids couldn't be collateral damage, but that didn't mean I'd become a murderer. I aim to maim, not kill. _

"_UP!" I yelled, instantly, Fang was on his feet and ran to me. He looked down at the creature on the floor. I looked at him and he nodded and drew out his gun, tranquilizer rounds. He shot the poor creature with enough Thorazine to knock out a stampeding elephant, needless to say, he wouldn't be jumping up for a nasty surprise any time soon. _

_I grabbed his hand and we continued through the corridor. This was no longer kid stuff, it had been kicked up to a whole new level. Now that ITEX was hobbling around in broken circled like a crippled insect, they weren't pulling any punches. They knew they were going down, it was inevitable, but they were going to at least take us down with them. Or so they thought. _

_Looking down at my watch, I checked the countdown. _

"_ETE?" Fang asked as he kicked in a door and checked what appeared to be a computer lab for any idiots who decided to stick around after the evacuation notice had gone off. _

"_Three minutes and 24 seconds..." I said and checked the office across the hall, making sure to kick the deck and open the closet. Like I said, we're not killers. _

"_CLEAR!" He yelled and ran back into the hall. _

"_CLEAR!" I followed and we continued our way up the hall. _

_It had become so easy to fall into this routine. We'd go through, issue a warning, check the building and then blow it to kingdom come. It was a lot like setting fire to an ant hill. It didn't stop the problem, but it definitely let you know what you were dealing with. _

_We checked the last of the offices. I gave the signal. He brought up his walkie-talkie. "This is Fang, Perimeter of the Southern Wing is CLEAR." With that said we ran like bats out of hell. The helicopter was hovering outside the exit, Why they felt that we needed a helicopter pick up, I don't know. We have wings people. _

_I rolled my eyes as we grabbed the handles next to the gunner. Oh yeah, about the guys who're giving up a lift. Let's just say that they work for the government but you won't find there names on paper anywhere...Ever. As I'm sure you can tell, we'd made some pretty powerful friends over the last year and a half. _

_I guess the voice, Jeb wasn't kidding when he said that connections were important. _

_The helicopter lifted up and a nervously slow pace. We were in the clear, but I'm used to being at cloud height before the fireworks start. The explosions always made me think of Iggy and Gazzy. _

_I looked over at Fang, who was staring at the gigantic fireball stoically. We watched as fly-boys and Erasers Version 7's crawled out of the blazing woodwork. It even looked like a burning anthill now. There was no saving them. It was the humane thing to do. The rapid burst of the mounted large caliber machine guns didn't even make me flinch anymore. _

_I watched as the monsters fell before the spray of bullets and I felt no sympathy for them any longer. I looked over at Fang, who gave me a cheeky wink and kissed the air. I smiled and rolled my eyes. _

_Suddenly something unexpected happened and there was return fire. I looked down to see that a white-coat was taking pot shots at us with an AK. _

"_Taking precautionary measures, guys!" The pilot announced over the comm system. The helicopter tilted sideways, forcing the AK rounds to hit the armored bottom. It was sudden, and I was gripping the handle tightly. I looked over at Fang. He smiled at me. Just another adventure at this point in our lives. _

_The white-coat ran out of ammo, and the gunner took him out. We declared our mission finished and booked it out of there. _

_When the helicopter landed, we were the first one's off. Hunched over we hustled across the landing pad and stepped into the barracks. Fang and I technically weren't part of the team, so we shared a private quarters. Which worked out because there was stuff in our lives we didn't want the other guys knowing about. _

_I stepped into the room and Fang closed it behind us. I sighed and started taking off the body armor. I only weigh 98 pounds and I'm weary 45 pounds of armer, talking about overkill. I didn't bother hanging it up, just tossed it on the floor. I don't know what good old Uncle Sam would have to say about that, but I really didn't care. I flopped down on the bed, my boots still on. _

_Fang chuckled from across the room. "what are you laughing at, mister?" I asked him. He only smirked and stepped over to the bed. I flopped over and he sat down, pulling my feet onto his lap. He unlaced and took them off, setting them gently on the floor. _

"_I can't believe how much we've changed, Fang." I muttered. He raised a brow at me. I slid my legs off the side of the bed and sat up. "I mean, a year and a half ago, we wouldn't have been riding around in a helicopter watching as they shot down Erasers." I said as I started loosening the straps of his jacket. _

"_Yeah, but a hear and a half ago, ITEX wanted nothing more then to have us all back in cages. Now they won't stop until our hearts do too." He replied. _

_I nodded. "I just can't help but feel that this is changing who we are. What if it effects the way we are with the kids?" I asked him. _

_He laughed. "Ah, that's what you're worried about? Don't worry, hun. It'll be fine once this is over, better even." He looked me in the eyes. "You, need to stop worrying so much." He said with a grin. _

"_Oh yeah?" I asked him flirtatiously. He gave me The Grin. I smiled brightly. "I dare you." I snapped. _

_Almost as soon as the words came out of my mouth he was tickling me furiously. I laughed and turned the tables on him. When we were both having issues breathing we stopped and lay down next to each other. "So... The next one is the last." He said. I nodded. I knew what he meant. _

"_Excited?" I asked him. _

"_Anxious." He replied. "I can't wait for this to finally be over." _

_I turned on my side and looked at him. His features were schooled and un-giving. "What are you thinking about?" I asked him. _

_His face flashed with emotion for a second and he stared up at the ceiling. "The last time we saw everybody. Angel's wail... They still get to me." He said and I knew it was true. _

"_I know." I said and wrapped an arm over him. "But now is not the time to think about that." I said softly. "Now is the time to take a shower and get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a big day." I told him. _

"_Well, it'd help if I didn't have somebody draped all over me." He said sarcastically. I sighed and rolled over._

"_Uh-uh. You first, Max. You know I use all of the hot water." He said, sitting up. _

"_Yeah, but I don't want to move." I replied wearily. _

_Fang shook his head and went into the bathroom. I stood up and went to the closet grabbing his towel and a pair of pajama bottoms. He always did this. _

_5..._

_4..._

_3..._

_2..._

"_MAX! CAN YOU-" And I opened the door waving the wad of cloth in front of me. Then I noticed something... The shower was on, but Fang was still fully dressed. "See, now you can take a shower. You moved." _

_I gave him a dirty look. "You want me to take a shower that bad?" I asked him. _

_He smirked down and me. "Yeah." _

"_Fine!" I said and shoved him into the shower, still fully dressed._

"_Hey!" He yelled in protest. _

"_See, you're already wet, so you might as well get your shower first." I replied. _

_Then he did something I didn't expect, he grabbed me by the front of my shirt and pulled me into the shower with him. Now, both fully dressed and soaking wet, I looked at him sternly. Any witty comeback was lost when I looked at him. _

_And like that he was kissing me. Well, not so much 'kissing' me as practically eating my face. But that's okay, I gave as good as I got. _

"_Uh... Max?? Fang??" A voice asked from the main room. We poked out heads out. "Yeah?" _

"_Um.. Uh... There's been a change in plans... We've moved up the final base attack." Alex, the messenger told us. _

_I looked over at Fang, who was turning off the water. _

"_How much have they moved it up?" I asked him, the tension building. _

"_Uh... As soon as you get there, we're holding the briefing and then... We go?" He sad_

_This wasn't good. "What? Why has it been moved up?" I asked. Alex was getting twitchy, obviously remembering some of our previous encounters. There is a reason why they say, "Don't shoot the messenger." and I guess nailing him with a combat-boot falls into the same category. "Thanks, Alex, just give us five minutes." I said as nicely as I could. _

_Alex promptly turned around and marched out of the room. _

_Me and Fang had to hustle into new uniforms and our body armor. As we made our by to the briefing room. We stood there listening to the briefing and couldn't believe my ears. "We have receive intell that tells us that the final base, is bugging out as we speak. We have to move fast if we're going to get them." _

"_What are we waiting for, let's get the show on the road!" I yelled. There were several nods and men were running for the gear and onto the heli-pad. Twenty minutes later we were airborne, and the site was in view. Several Trucks were loading equipment. Three other helicopters were dropping men off via drop lines. Me and Fang looked down and jumped. The gunner sarcastically shouted "SHOWOFFS!" behind us. _

_I smirked and planted my landing, bending at the knees. "Ready for this?" I asked him._

_Fang only looked over at me with a wicked grin. "My boot squishes every time I step down. Yeah, lets get this over with." And with that said we jumped into the fray. _

"_Get down! Everybody on the ground, hands away from your body!" I roared. Fang ran over and started checking for weapons and zip tying their wrists and ankles together. _

_With this many well trained men working with us, the job was easy. "Listen up!" I yelled. "My name, is Max Ride, and I'm informing you as of right now, that you are all under arrest for conspiracy to break the Human Rights Act of 2005." _

"_PROVE IT!" One ill-informed guard asked. I stepped over to where he was sitting on the ground. "Here's your proof." I said releasing just one wing. He stared at me. "Oh, so you've at least heard about me." I said sarcastically. _

_Fang rolled his eyes and we prepared to storm the building. We ran inside "EVERYBODY OUT!" The men screamed, we marched down the hall and looked around. There was nobody here. _

"_CLEAR!"_

"_CLEAE!"_

"_CLEAR!"_

"_CLEAR!"_

_I stepped back out into the hall. "Clear! This place is empty. Let's blow this joint!" I announced. The team leader called it in to the ground team. "PERIMETER IS CLEAR!" _

_We ran down the stairs into the basement and looked around. I recognized this place, it's probably where I was 'born'. Small poorly designed hybrids, crawled and squawked from their cages. A part of me panged with remorse. "I'm sorry, guys. It'll be over soon." There was no way that these poor creatures had any chance of living even another year. This was the kinder thing. _

_With that I lead them back to the grounds. The trucks had finally arrived and the captives were being hauled into the truck three at a time. _

"_ETD?" I asked Ron, our resident explosive specialist. He looked at me. "Estimating? About two minutes once we get the last of these guys on the bus." I nodded.  
_

_Fang called my name and I turned to him. "I checked the com lines. They're down. All of them, even personal land lines. It's all gone, Max. We're done." _

_I smiled. "What are you doing just standing around?! Help me load these jerks on the bus so we can get the heck out of here." I announced. _

_Mere moments later, the last struggling white-coat was gagged and crammed into the back of the FED-EX lookalike truck. _

"_That's the last of them!" Ron announced. "Setting timer for 2 minutes." The truck was rolling and the men were all loaded in the helicopters waiting for lift off. We were staring as the familiar fireball erupted, consuming everything in it's wake. _

"_It's a beautiful thing." Fang said, from behind me. _

_I nodded and took a breath. "Yes, it is." _

_The choppers scrolled through the sky and I watched as the smoke billowed behind us. It was gone, and nothing could have been more beautiful. _

_We told you once, that we would find you, and yet you seem surprised that we kept our word. We could not find a way, so we paved our own, cauterizing it as we went. Your empire lays in ashes, and your reign has come to an end. You may ask why? Why have we done this? We'll tell you... Just doing what we have to do._


End file.
